Olivia Dean was named Apple Music's 2026 Artist of the Year on Monday (Nov 9), becoming the first British artist to receive the honor. The award, which went to Tyler, the Creator a year ago, lands one week before Dean helps read out the 2027 Grammy nominations.
"Wow thank you for making me your artist of the year. this has been the wildest year of my life! the year of loving and so much learning. thank you for listening love u all," Dean writes in Instagram.
"Man I Need" has appeared on Apple Music's Daily Top 100 every day since it first charted on August 29, 2025. That run of more than 14 months carried the lead single from her sophomore album, The Art of Loving, across two calendar years. Apple Music co-head Rachel Newman credited Dean with writing from the heart every time, and Dean said being recognized "as an artist that's made an impact is really cool."
The honor caps a year that opened with Dean winning the Grammy for Best New Artist in Los Angeles on February 1. That night she performed "Man I Need" in a glittering red dress during a medley featuring all eight nominees. Later that month she took home four BRIT Awards, including Artist of the Year, and in March she was among the winners at the MOBO Awards.
Her world tour, The Art of Loving Live, opened at Glasgow's OVO Hydro in April with a cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up." It ran 54 shows across Europe, North America and Oceania before closing in Auckland on October 17, with Alice Phoebe Lou, Kokoroko, Jalen Ngonda and Sasha Keable among the opening acts.
Her six nights at London's O2 Arena included two May dates when Sam Fender joined her for "Rein Me In." Demand in Dublin pushed her June shows from Fairview Park to the larger Marlay Park. In August she returned to Madison Square Garden, where she had opened for Sabrina Carpenter the previous fall, for four headline nights of her own. She also shared top billing at Lollapalooza in Chicago with Charli XCX, Tate McRae and Lorde.
Months before the first show, Dean publicly accused Ticketmaster and other primary sellers of letting scalpers resell her tickets at steep markups. Ticketmaster and AXS responded by capping resale prices for the tour and refunding fans who had paid above face value. Through the nonprofit PLUS1, she also directed $1 from each North American ticket to communities in Jamaica hit by Hurricane Melissa.
On October 1, a publisher of Bill Withers' catalog filed a federal suit in Los Angeles claiming her album closer "I've Seen It" copies the melody of "Just the Two of Us." As HitsCulture reported, the complaint names her labels and publishers rather than Dean or her co-writers.
Apple's editors trace her sound to 1960s soul and to Sade, Prince and Lauryn Hill. The album's central idea comes from bell hooks' 1999 book All About Love: New Visions, which treats love as a practice that takes conscious effort. Dean, whose mother is of Jamaican and Guyanese heritage, has carried that idea into songs about friendship as often as romance.
On November 16, Dean joins Pharrell Williams, Kehlani, Herbie Hancock and others to present the Grammy nominations from The Square in Times Square. It is the first nominations cycle in which The Art of Loving, released in September 2025, is eligible.
In January she heads to Asia, headlining LaLaLa Fest at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan on January 14 for her Philippine concert debut. She shares the Manila bill with P-pop group BINI, Up Dharma Down, Lola Amour and SunKissed Lola. Stops follow in Jakarta on January 17 and Bangkok on January 20, and she is also confirmed to headline Lollapalooza India in Mumbai that month. The 69th Grammy Awards take place February 7 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
